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So I was asked to give some words of encouragement to the graduates during RCCC’s graduation night. What was funny was that I was younger than some of the graduates! Anyways, below is what I shared.

First off, I want to say congratulations to this year’s graduates. Whether you’re graduating from high school, college or graduate school, your perseverance through these years of schooling will have finally paid off when you walk across the stage to get your diploma. As you hear various graduation speeches in the coming weeks, you’ll no doubt hear talk about how this is a new beginning, or about what you and your class have achieved and accomplished or how your class was better than everyone else before yours. You’ll be told stories of what you’ve been through and hear talk of the past as well of talk of the future. In addition to all this, you’ll most likely also forget what all of them said the moment you walk away, just as you’ll likely forget what is said here tonight.

With that in mind, I just want to share with you two things that hopefully will encourage and guide you. The first and most important thing that I want to share is that you should seek after God and put your faith in Christ. Every one of us has a future that we look forward to. Dreams that we want to pursue, or goals that we want to achieve. However, without God in the picture, our goals, our dreams are meaningless. Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” We need to put our faith in God to earnestly seek after Him in all that we do as we live our lives. It is only through this act that we will be able to fulfill God’s purpose for us. A purpose that will bring us joy as stated in the first part of Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him.”

Standing here today and being able to look back on the past 10 years since I’ve graduated (from high school), I can definitely see the grace of God in my life and how God’s plan has developed for me. As I was applying to colleges, I had big dreams of going to the ivy leagues. However, God had other plans for me. After a handful of rejections, he brought me to the University of Illinois, a school that I had barely thought about before applying, but was a school that allowed me to go to one of the better engineering schools in the country, even better than the Ivy League schools that I had wanted to get in to.

When I arrived at Illinois, one of the first things I did was to become involved in a fellowship group. Though it took me a couple of years to find the right one, I made it a point to continue to seek after God. It is through this fellowship group that God continued to bless me with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and He continued to teach me through His word. It says in Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Along with my parents who encouraged me to trust in God and to seek after Him, it is through my years in college that God taught me to really put my faith in him. While being able to graduate with a degree was nice, it was more important that God taught me to trust in him completely.

To those who are graduating high school, college is a time where you will really put your faith to the test. You will find yourself with all sorts of freedom, not having anyone around to tell you what to do. No one will be around to make you go to church, or even your classes. But tonight, I want to encourage you as you go off to college to get yourself involved in a fellowship group and to make good friends. Proverbs 13:20 says “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.” So don’t be a fool! Also in college, you may find yourself tempted, and unsure of what to do in various situations. However in these times, remember what Jesus said when he was being tempted by Satan in Matthew 4:10, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Though I had my own ideas and plans, God knew of something even better. God brought me to Illinois, taught me to really put my faith in Him, and along the way allowed me to meet Mazie. While I’m a pretty laid back person by nature, one event in grad school at SUNY Buffalo taught me that with faith in God, there’s no need to worry. As I was driving to class one evening towards the end of the semester to give my final presentation, I got into a car accident, where by the grace of God I was uninjured. Now, most would say that if one were to get into a car accident roughly 30 minutes before they needed to give a final presentation that that would be a perfect time to start worrying. However, I was able to get the car towed away, find a ride to campus, and give my presentation to get an A for the class. “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Jesus states in Luke 12:25. So even in the most difficult of situations, put your faith in the Lord and give your worries to Him.

For those of you graduating college now and are unsure of your futures, I want to encourage you to give your future over to God and place your trust in Him. You may not know what lies ahead of you, but God does. If you are walking with God, and seeking after Him, He will guide you and set your paths straight. In 10 years, you’ll be able to look back and see exactly what God was doing and how each event in your life brought you to the next. Romans 8:28 says “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

The second point I wanted to share with you tonight is that as you graduate, to live life with a smile. Too many times we walk about in this world with indifference on our faces. People see us and simply move on never having given another thought to who they walked by. However, if we can walk around with a smile, we’d have a good chance at being able to brighten someone else’s day. Not only does it help others to see us with a smile on, it can help ourselves since if we’re smiling we’re more likely to have a brighter outlook on life. We should also be smiling because we should be content with what God has given us like Paul said in Philippians 4:12-13 “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

So as you graduate in a few weeks, remember to seek after God in all that you do. Whether it’s finding a fellowship group or church to be a part of in the next stage of your life, or finding a job for yourself or even trying to find a future spouse, seek after God and His will for you in your life, emphasis on His will. As well as seeking after God, walk away tonight with a smile. A smile for your achievements and accomplishments in graduating, a smile for your neighbor to let them know that you care, and a smile for your faith in God and the good things that He has in store for you. Congratulations again on your graduation!

With the weather starting to warm up a little, the snow was able to melt off the grass. As I looked down onto my backyard, I noticed a series of paths across the top of my lawn. Now in the past, I’ve seen field mice or the correct term, voles, running around my backyard. The voles will basically create these paths along the ground where they frequently run back and forth to get food. As they go back and forth, they essentially destroy any grass that you have in the path.

When the grass starts to grow, these paths will be somewhat harder to see, with the grass covering most everything up. However, with the grass still somewhat dead, you can clearly see the paths that the voles created. I thought I was able to get rid of the voles last year, but I guess I was wrong as they’re still around. Looks like I’ll have to try even more stuff to kill off the voles. Below’s a picture where I drew along the paths in the grass. If anyone has any good ideas on how to kill off the voles, let me know!

So I was looking at some NFL draft information and came across some heights and weights for prospective players. I’m currently about 6’2 (rounded up) and ~195lbs. This got me to wondering what kind of positions I could play if I were a tad more athletic than I am now.

If I had a mean streak in me, I could play Safety as I found a couple of players listed at roughly 6’2″ and 190lbs.

If I added more muscle, I have decent height to play WR as there were a few wide receivers listed around 6’2″ and usually 210lbs. Also if I couldn’t catch anything, I’d also have a good height/weight for a cornerback.

I would also be able to play my favorite position of quarterback. Most of the prospective players were around 6’2″ to 6’4″ and usually around 200lbs. Even Drew Brees who’ll be playing in the super bowl tomorrow is listed at 6’0″, so I have a good height for a QB though maybe a tad on the shorter end.

Running back is also possible but most of the listed RB’s were a little shorter and a bit heavier (more muscle).

So it looks like the NFL could be in my future! Too bad I’d probably get killed the first time someone attempted to tackle me.

So over this past Christmas holiday, Mazie and I did a little bit of decorating to our house. We’re still slow in the whole decorating aspect, but we’ll get there eventually. Anyways, we were thinking of what to hang on the walls, so Mazie came up with the idea of framing some photos that I’ve taken.

I think I’ve taken over 20,000 photos in the past few years, so there had to be some good ones to hang up. One issue is that a large majority of my photos are typically of people, specifically of the YG. It might be a little weird for someone to walk into our house and see a huge portrait of a YG kid. So anyways, after sorting through a ton of photos, we decided to start by printing and framing the following photos.

So we printed these three photos to start with and hung them up. They actually came out looking pretty good printed in black and white. Nothing too spectacular, but we enjoy them nonetheless.

So last week I was performing my civic duty by going in for jury selection. This was the first time that I had ever been even selected so I really didn’t have any idea of what to expect. Since I had already postponed my jury selection once, I was unable to do so again, so my call number was one of the lower ones, pretty much ensuring that I would have to go in.

So when I got to the county courthouse, I found out the details of what would be going on. I would be going through jury selection on a civil trial. Fortunately, I had also brought a book that day since I was doing a lot of waiting. When our group was finally called into the courtroom, the judge, attorneys, and their clients were all there and the judge described the case to us.

There were about 40 or so potential jurors also seated in the room waiting to see what would happen next. The clerk went and randomly drew names to see which 18 I believe would be seated. The case was related to a car accident that occurred over two years ago. The plaintiff was basically suing the defendants over the accident. The defendants were already found liable, so I’m guessing they got a police ticket at the accident.

After the 18 jurors were seated, the lawyers for both sides went through the process of questioning the jurors about the case. They asked all sorts of questions were even the smallest detail could relate to the case. Whether a person knew the doctors who performed surgery, whether a person had been treated at the same hospital, and so on. This went on for around an hour before the lawyers went to the back to select the eight jurors to listen to the case.

One thing that I thought was interesting was the purpose of the jury was to basically determine how much money the plaintiff would receive in the end. The jury would be putting a monetary value to what they believed was the price that the plaintiff paid in pain and suffering. The amount that the jury could come up with could be anything since it was completely up to the jury to decide. Maybe the plaintiff’s pain and suffering was only worth $100, or maybe it was worth $1 million. It would’ve been interesting to have been a juror on the trial to be one that decides how much someone’s pain and suffering is worth. Not only do you control how much is paid, but the jury can possibly put the defendant into bankruptcy with a large enough number. Since I wasn’t seated/selected, I have no clue how the case ended, whether the selected jury came up with a big number, or a small number.

I’m not quite sure I agree with all the litigation that’s involved in the country nowadays where people sue others left and right to try and make a quick dollar. However, this could easily change if I were involved in a situation where I need to sue someone else. Is someone’s pain and suffering really worth a huge amount of money? Hard to say. What if the jury came up with a small value, would their pain and suffering be any less than if the jury had ended up with a large number? Maybe I should’ve been a lawyer instead of an engineer, especially since I didn’t think the defendant’s lawyer was really doing that good of a job from what I could tell.

So I had a chance to do a little photo touch up recently. Can you notice the difference? If you click on the picture, you can get a larger view.

So seeing how I took the liberty to edit my own picture, what do you think about such touch ups in general for photos? One could easily remove blemishes, change how people look, or even make people look better all through editing of the photo. Is this wrong to do? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!